Nigel says “I’m very flattered by the comments and I have said since I met the president-elect that I would like to do anything I can to act in a positive way to help relationships between our two countries.” An ill-tempered Downing Street has put out the line that “There is no vacancy. We have an excellent ambassador to the US.”Which is as factually true as it is unimaginative.

There are however rather a lot of vacancies in the Department for International Trade for trade negotiators. There is no doubt that for Nigel Farage the doors of the highest offices in Washington D.C. will open. It would be a self-defeating waste of a national asset to not give Nigel a transatlantic role. Theresa May should ignore the collective hissy fit of the commentariat and make him Sir Nigel Farage, Her Majesty’s Special Envoy for Trade to the United States of America…